Tarbox23

16 April 2010

Lascoux and Pong

So, I am relearning Java, so I can code a few simple games for my Droid, using the Android SDK. There is an excellent article about programming games for Android here at Robert Green's DIY. Also, Tim Layton, who has excellent coding tutorials, has a great article on getting setup to code in Android.

My goal is to eventually get fluent enough to be able to code some sinister dadaist type games, and maybe help in the wider effort to get CPU-gaming eventually recognized as the next artistic medium. I think that I have subconsciously known this ever since I was a kid coding primitive assembly language games back in the 1980s on my Atari 400; I was so excited to see a pixel move around the screen when i moved a joystick.

I sincerely believe that Pong will be regarded like the Lascaux cave paintings some day.

CPU-based gaming is still set back in some Renaissance era, as if perspective has just been realized, somewhere between the stylings of Rococo and Baroque. It clearly has a way to go before it enters the modern era of artistic form.

Just like how we regard Baroque or Rococo paintings today, as being pretty light on substance and over-focused upon photographic emulation, the increasing realism and three dimensionality of games since 2000 are the defining characteristics of a game developed for the modern CPU.

But, in decades or even centuries, I think that it will become obvious that gaming was the next artistic form.

It is the next obvious medium where all the mojo must go.

Water colors and viola are not where the artists in 2050 are going to be working. The games of the future are going to be mind-blowing and anarchic.

I hope to be somehow involved. Please send me a line if you are an amateur or aspiring simple game designer, as I hope to be.

22 March 2010

Synth Brittania

This BBC Channel Four documentary about the rise of synthesizer bands in the UK is mandatory viewing! It covers the influences and early experimentation of the first all-synth groups, as well as how the music was eventually accepted and found chart success in the UK and the rest of the world.

This was a parallel punk music, just played with machines rather than cheap guitars. These artists were pioneers, and often ridiculed by 'real' musicians and music journalism.

Excellent interviews with the key players. I was particularly interested in how so many of these artists were involved in several of the seminal bands.

Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.

In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including the Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Volatire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard and dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.

Enjoy!

Note: This documentary is unavailable to those of us in the U.S., so I have the 10 parts up in youtube. Not sure how long they will be available. BBC 4 already deleted the last of the 9, so I had to find 2 parts from another source to complete it. Thus, the last 30 minutes may have a few minutes of redundancy. Fast-forward is your friend!

01 March 2010

Google Wants You to Have an Easy Exit

Ars Technica explains how one of Google's priorities is to let their users take their data and leave.

This is quite the opposite of how most other companies treat their customers.

"CAGE FREE DATA," they proclaim, which sums up the Data Liberation Front's efforts succinctly. The team's goal is nothing less than to make it simple for people to leave Google's many services, taking e-mails, photos, and documents along with them.

I found this article refreshing - our data SHOULD be easily transferable, and as portable as possible.

Nicole Wong, Google's Deputy General Counsel, told us separately that DLF matters to Google for two reasons: 1) it provides control to users and 2) "when we say our competition is one click away," initiatives like DLF prove that it's true.

More kudos to Google.

24 February 2010

Carter Administration Did NOT Suck

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/02/22/presidential_debate

From Foreign Policy:

Former President Jimmy Carter and his former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski respond to Walter Russell Mead's "The Carter Syndrome."

This is an excellent rebuttal by Carter and Brzezinski to an article which, with no facts, demeaned their administration.

Brzezinski succinctly reminds us of why the Carter Administration, despite how the media loves to frame it, did not suck:

Since Mead provides no examples, here are a few geopolitical accomplishments of Carter's four years:

He reconnected the United States with the quest for human rights in both the communist states and those under right-wing dictatorships, in sharp contrast to his predecessor.

Confronting an initially hostile Congress, he pushed through the treaties that resolved the Panama Canal issue, which was threatening to poison U.S. relations with Latin America.

He tackled the Middle Eastern conundrum, personally achieving the first peace treaty ever between Israel and an Arab neighbor.

He not only managed to normalize relations with China, but in the process fashioned a quiet partnership against the Soviet Union.

He actively supported the Solidarity movement in Poland and secretly assisted the national aspirations of the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union.

He promoted the modernization of U.S. strategic forces and approved the deployment of the MX missile and the development of the Rapid Deployment Force.

He initiated a command and a support structure for a U.S. military capability in the Persian Gulf.

Through prolonged but determined negotiations, he reached the SALT II agreement with the Soviet Union (subsequently not submitted for congressional ratification because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan).

Following that invasion, under his leadership the United States took the initiative in organizing a cooperative effort of a number of leading European, Middle Eastern, and East Asian states in providing military aid to the Afghan resistance, and that resistance contributed to the internal crisis that eventually broke up the Soviet Union.

Old Media Revisited - Part 2 of 523

I was unpacking some boxes of books and magazines, and came across two 1998 copies of Wired - I remember saving them on purpose, because they were special issues predicting how the world would be running in 2008 and 2018 and such - Futurism fascinates me -

They hit it pretty well on the head regarding the confluence of techs over the next decade - but the advertisements were what most interested me. Only some of them had urls listed anywhere. Half of them were for liquor, which was a bit perplexing, until I remembered 1998 was the ecstatic year when the dot.coms would all begin receiving massive investments. Luxury car ads abound - there is an ad for a Zip drive, and an ad for a digital camera (640x480 resolution!) that exclaims its ability to store images directly to a 3.5" floppy disc. Typographically, it was an era of contrived mismatching type styles and sizes.

I noticed some cereal boxes in a Target the other day; they had been printed with the 1960s/70s era typefonts and design. Retro, to appeal to the boomer and post-boomer nostalgia in all of us parent consumers.

Enjoy the cereal ad history:

Breakfast Slogans of Champions | The Big Money

17 February 2010

JD Recycle 3: Transmission

"Transmission" and "Novelty," by Joy Division, remastered by the folks at Recycle who did such a wonderful job on the New Order singles.

Tracks 3 and 4 feature the recently discovered rough mixes of the two songs, and contain different lyrics:

The first true kickass JD track, Transmission and its sibling Novelty were recorded twice by Martin Hannett. The first attempt is captured on tracks 3 and 4, here in never-before-heard quality. These were recorded in July 1979 at Manchester's Central Sound Studios, and as the title implies, are presented here as "rough mix" versions. As far as we know these are the only versions that ever made it out from the masters. Two other tracks recorded at the same session, Dead Souls and Something Must Break, are on the Heart And Soul box set - though in lesser fidelity.

And track 5 is an extremely rare (i.e. we have never heard it) studio version of Atrocity Exhibition that has also been recluded until now. Check out Recycle for more details.

These guys are professionally remastering old Factory singles, hoping a label will notice both the beauty of the music, and the popularity of the bands, and release quality remasters for the first time.

So, enjoy! As usual, this is amazing work from the Recycle team.... three never-before-heard Joy Division songs, two beautifully-restored vinyl conversions... obtain the goodness!

Remember The Milk

Remember The Milk: Online to do list and task management

Matt Hannan turned me on to this little task manager program. It is amazing, and can be gadgeted into your iGoogle page. Or apped onto your iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, or Winmo phone.

The best part? You don't have to enter due dates. But you can.

Another great feature is that you can create any categories you like, and organize your tasks. It also works with tags.

Because it connects to iGoogle and my mobile, I am always able to view and edit the tasks. And having it on my Droid is perfect for those WTF moments in Lowe's or Home Depot when I am in an aisle trying to remember that 5th item I was going to pick up...

EDIT: You can use an app for your mobile called Astrid to sync with Remember the Milk online, for free. The RtM Droid app costs $25 per year. The online component of Remember the Milk is free.

16 February 2010

New Music: Spacescape @ MMA

Spacescape, a project with three bands and seven musicians, released a 13-track LP this week. Atmospheric, dreamy, cinematic, and at times playful. You can check it out online at MysticMusicArchive.

http://www.mysticmusicarchive.org/music/Front-Page/news-spacescape.html

Fear the Printing Press!

Vaughan Bell at Slate explores how society tends to always fear the latest technology, and how our media goes into panicked hyperbole whenever a new tech permeates into our culture - something to keep in mind when you hear all the blather about how xbox/cellphones/facebook/etc are killing society, culture, and the brains of our children.

The older generation warns against a new technology and bemoans that society is abandoning the "wholesome" media it grew up with, seemingly unaware that this same technology was considered to be harmful when first introduced.

http://www.slate.com/id/2244198/

15 February 2010

Bad Lieutenant Playing US Dates

Bad Lieutenant is playing Wednesday, April 21 at Webster Hall in NYC. They are essentially half of Joy Division/New Order.

I suppose I should buy a ticket.

I hear they are also playing Coachella.